


Verger Virtues

by sunkelles



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Happy Halloween 2017!, Here have some murder wives, Post-Episode: s03e07 Digestivo, Verger family politics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 07:55:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12577188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: Alana Bloom marries into the Vergers. This has consequences.





	Verger Virtues

**Author's Note:**

> happy halloween everyone! i was finally able to break a month long writing drought for the murder wives.

Murder and money are messy businesses. 

Margot, as a Verger, is familiar with both. Alana has become far more acquainted with both than she ever expected to. She can thank Margot for both, though Hannibal deserves a little credit on both fronts. She pushes the thought out of her mind. She doesn't like ruminating on Hannibal any more than she has to. 

Instead, she chooses to ruminate on Molson Verger's will and the impeding reading of it. The will demands a male heir, and the company board meets a week after they put Mason in the ground. 

"I'm surprised it took this long," Margot says. 

"Really?" Alana asks.

"The board is full of bloodsuckers," Margot says, "if there's a chance they can get to that money before the Church does, they'll take it." 

"But they won't," Alana tells her. 

"Of course not," Margot says with a hint of a smile, "our son will ensure that." 

Alana has always wanted children. She never really expected to conceive as a power play to ensure she and her wife inherit the family fortune, but she won't complain either. She wants a baby, and she wants a baby with Margot. The circumstances of the conception do not matter. 

Alana and Margot walk into the board of directors. As Alana expected, they are all white men in their fifties to seventies. 

"Ms. Verger, and Ms-" 

"Bloom. Alana Bloom." 

"My fiancée," Margot says. 

"Congratulations," one says sarcastically, "why do we care?" 

"Because we have a Verger baby on the way," Alana says. The men don't look convinced. 

"Margot does not have the capacity to bear a child." 

"She doesn't," Alana says, "but I do." 

"What?" 

"We spoke to my brother about wanting a child before he died. He'd already done his part to provide us with one." One of them starts to laugh. 

"A Verger heir," the only man who still has no gray in his hair says, "Molson would be pleased." 

"Mason is dead, and his scorned, lesbian child is going to raise his child with her legal wife. Molson isn't _pleased_ ; he's rolling in his grave."

"It's an heir nonetheless. As long as it's male, of course." 

"We have multiple samples," Margot says evenly, as though used to this sort of treatment. Alana sadly knows that she is. 

"If the first child is not a boy, we're bound to get one eventually." 

"What if you don't. The will specified the company go to the Church in the absence of a male heir." 

"Think of it as holding the company in trust. My father wanted the Verger business to survive if there was any way. This is the way." 

"I suppose you're right, Ms. Verger. We will hold the company until Ms. Bloom births a Verger boy. Then, the company shall pass to him." Alana suppressed a smile as she takes her wife's hand. 

"Thank you for your time, gentlemen. The Verger line applauds your patience." The men seem dismissive as they leave the room, as if Alana and Margot are no threat, just a womb and a husk. They don't seem to know who will be running the show once their Verger boy is born. Whole empires have been built by mothers serving as regents, and Alana and Margot will do no less. 

This whole company underestimates women, and Alana is happy to let them keep doing that. She's a short disabled woman, easy to underestimate, and she's at her strongest when no one knows what she's capable of.

* * *

 

First comes baby, then comes marriage. It's a backwards sort of arrangement, but she and Margot need this baby to cement their standing in the company and Alana is not about to have a shot gun wedding in a maternity gown. 

She's a public figure now, apparently. All of their wedding photos are to be posted all over the tabloids. Marrying into the Verger family is like marrying into slaughterhouse royalty. She feels a bit like a fragile, collectible doll put in a display for the entire world to view. 

Tabloids run all sorts of stories about her and Margot, though none of them approach the truth in absurdity. Freddie Lounds, however, plants the idea that they killed Mason into the public consciousness. In true Lounds style, she calls them The Murder Wives and prints a tiny bit of truth hidden in a mountain of libel. 

Margot sues. Lounds settles. The idea, however, has already taken root in the minds of the people, and they love a good story. A story as full of murder and intrigue and love as the Verger wives is sure to sell and sure to stick. 

No one dares to bring up the rumors to her face. They don't at the wedding, or at Morgan's first birthday party or any of the numerous parties they are required to throw by high society. 

But just because no one directly asks "did you and your wife kill her brother" doesn't mean that no one asks it indirectly. 

 

"Dr. Bloom," a colleague that she hasn't spoken to in ten years says, "how are you?" 

"I'm doing well, Ms. Flowers," Alana says. They had been such good friends while getting their masters degrees solely because of their similar flower names. Alana doesn't know why she used to like the other woman so much. 

"I'm so sorry about the death of your brother-in-law," 

"It affected my wife far more than it did me. I did not know him well," Alana says. She refuses to show more than a perfunctory amount of sadness over Mason's death. It's far easier to come up with excuses as to why she's not grieving at all. 

"You were his psychiatrist, weren't you?" Ms. Flowers says, sounding a little disgusted. Alana refuses to bow to her judgment, even though she suspects she's asking a different question. 

"I was. It's how Margot and I met." 

"Then you knew him," Ms. Flowers says. 

"We rarely spoke outside of our professional relationship. To speak about my experiences with him would almost always be against doctor patient confidentiality," Alana says. 

"You're hedging, Dr. Bloom." 

"I regret not getting to know my brother in law more outside of a psychiatric setting." The only regret Alana has about Mason Verger is that she and Margot didn't kill him earlier. Ms. Flowers, however, seems to buy this. That makes sense. Alana has spent the last few years of her life psychoanalyzing killers. Ms. Flowers has spent her time teaching psychology to freshman at a community college. It gives them jarringly different views of the world. 

"I'm sorry, Alana," she says, placing a much too friendly hand on Alana's shoulder. 

"Thank you, Lynda," Alana says. 

"My sister-in-law is one of my best friends. I'd hate to think about missing that opportunity." 

"It's alright, Lynda," Alana says, trying not to let her irritation show. A few years ago, Alana would have called this feeling hatred. Now, she knows different. This is irritation at best. Alana never hated anyone before her spine turned to steel, but she never loved anyone either. 

Hannibal taught her hate. Margot taught her love. And Mason? Mason taught her contempt. 

"Every family is different, Dr. Flowers," Alana says, forcing a smile, "now if you'll excuse me, I must find mine." Alana leaves Lynda as quickly as she had found her. Then she's alone with her thoughts. Alana happens to have a lot of them. 

The Verger family is fucked up. They have a legacy built on abuse and slaughter and stolen semen, but it's hers now. She chose it when she married Margot. Hell, she chose it back when she came to Mason seeking revenge and found his sister and happiness instead. 

Someday, she will tell Morgan their history, and it will make him stronger. He's a wonderful, beautiful boy bought with suffering and pain; someday he deserves to know that. Alana loves her family, vicious Verger edges and all. 


End file.
